Alkylphenols such as nonylphenol (NP) are one of a wide variety of environmental chemicals reported to have estrogenic effects in both in vitro and in vivo studies. Induction of hepatic vitellogenin (Vg) gene expression is widely used as a biomarker for xenoestrogen exposure in fish. However, little work has been done to characterize the molecular effects of xenoestrogens on other potential tar...

Bisphenol A (BPA), an environmental xenoestrogen, has been reported to induce learning and memory impairments in rodent animals. However, effects of BPA exposure on synaptic plasticity and the underlying physiological mechanisms remain elusive. Our behavioral and electrophysiological analyses show that BPA obviously perturbs hippocampal spatial memory of juvenile Sprague-Dawley rats after four ...

BACKGROUND Prenatal exposure to endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) has previously shown to alter epigenetic marks. OBJECTIVES In this work we explore whether prenatal exposure to mixtures of xenoestrogens has the potential to alter the placenta epigenome, by studying DNA methylation in retrotransposons as a surrogate of global DNA methylation. METHODS The biomarker total effective xenoes...

Estrogen plays a key role in the regulation [5] of gene transcription. This is accomplished by its ability to act as a ligand and to bind to specific estrogen receptor [6] (ER) molecules, such as ER? and ER?, which act as nuclear transcription factors. There are three major nuclear estrogen receptor [6] protein domains: the estrogen [7] binding domain, the protein interaction domain, and the DN...

In this article we report a simple and efficient method for detecting nonsteroidal estrogens in a biologic sample. This method uses polyclonal antibodies to estradiol (E2) to immunoprecipitate these major biologically active steroidal estrogens, leaving behind the nonsteroidal estrogens, which are then detected in a cell-based transcriptional activation bioassay for estrogen receptor agonist. T...

Bisphenol-A (BPA, 4, 4'-isopropylidene-2-diphenol), a synthetic xenoestrogen that widely used in the production of polycarbonate plastics, has been reported to impair hippocampal development and function. Our previous study has shown that BPA exposure impairs Sprague-Dawley (SD) male hippocampal dendritic spine outgrowth. In this study, the sex-effect of chronic BPA exposure on spatial memory i...

Exposure measurements from several countries indicate that humans are routinely exposed to low levels of bisphenol A (BPA), a synthetic xenoestrogen widely used in the production of polycarbonate plastics. There is considerable debate about whether this exposure represents an environmental risk, based on reports that BPA interferes with the development of many organs and that it may alter cogni...

Exposure to environmental chemicals with estrogenic activity during the early stage of pregnancy can seriously affect embryonic development and the maintenance of pregnancy. To estimate the metabolism and pharmacodynamics of a xenoestrogen, bisphenol A, in a reproductive organ, the metabolite of bisphenol A was analyzed after incubating a rat uterine sac in buffer solutions containing the chemi...